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SPICES 


THEIR HISTORIES 


Valuable Information For Grocers 


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PRICE FIFTY CENTS 


Copyrighted 1910 
By THE TRADE REGISTER, Inc. 
Seattle, Washington. 







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SPICES 


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INTRODUCTION. 

The history of spices, with other valuable informa¬ 
tion to all branches of the grocery trade, was origin¬ 
ally written by Robert O. Fielding, of the staff of the 
Trade Register, in which the several articles appeared 
in various issues of that journal, duly protected by 
copyright, with the accompanying illustrations. 

Retail grocers everywhere will find this little book 
of especial value for study and reference. It is all 
meat for the salesman who realizes that success in 
trade these days depends upon knowing where the 
goods he handles were produced, how to judge their 
qualities, how they are prepared for market, and 
what are their uses. How to sell, the market condi¬ 
tions, etc., are continuously set forth in the weekly 
issues of the Trade Register, $2 a year, by men who 
have had practical experience behind the counter. 



Page Three. 



ALLSPICE OR PIMENTO 


A Valuable Product From Jamaica Which Combines 
the Flavor of Cloves, Cinnamon and Nutmeg 


Allspice is the dried unripe berries of a tree of the 
myrtle 'family, the pimento, known botanically as 
Eugenia pimenta, or Pimenta officinalis. It’s an ever¬ 
green tree some 20 to 30 ft. high, with a Slender, 
straight, upright trunk, much branched at the top; 
the bark is smooth, gray and aromatic; the leaves— 
which when fresh abound in essential oil—are 5 in. 
long, of an oblong shape and deep shiny green color; 
the blossoms—which appear in July and August— 
are white and fragrant; the berries (sometimes call¬ 
ed corns), which form on the disappearance of the 
flower, are picked unripe, altho fully grown, they 
are of a greenish-purple color. After picking, the 
berries are dried in the sun or in kilns until dark 
brown and then separated from the stalk. The dried 
berries are light, brittle, of roundish form and crown¬ 
ed with the remains of the flower calyx in the shape 
of a raised, seared-like ring; each berry contains two 
dark-brown flattish, kidney-shaped seeds. If allow¬ 
ed to ripen, the berries lose their aromatic flavor and 
become merely sweet and pulpy. Only in Jamaica— 
where it is cultivated in plantations called Pimento 
walks—does the pimento tree grow to perfection, 
altho attempts are made to cultivate it in other West 
India islands and South America. It is thought to 
combine the flavor of cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg, 
hence it is called allspice. 


Page Four. 




c 


SPICES 

Uses—Its chief use is for culinary purposes. It is 
a powerful irritant, good for dyspepsia, flatuency, 
gout, hysteria and toothache. It is often employed 
to disguise the nasty taste of medicine. Allspice 
yields volatile oil by distillation, which is used as a 



flavoring in alcoholic solution, is of a brownish-red, 
clear appearance, and has the odor and taste of pi¬ 
mento, but is warm and more pungent. A green 
fixed oil has the burning aromatic taste of pimento 
and is supposed to be the acrid principle. A tincture 


Page Five. 
















SPICES 


from allspice has been praised as an application in 
chilblains. 

Substitutes.—The Mexican spice, called Pimento 
de Tabascol is somewhat larger and less aromatic 
than Jamaica pimento. The berries of Pimento acris, 
(bayberry) whose leaves are used in the manufac¬ 
ture of bay-rum. The Carolina allspice—calycanthus 
florides, a shrub 6 or 8 ft. high, with an odor some¬ 
what like strawberries. Japan allspice—chimonan- 
thus frangrans—which grows in Japan, and wild all¬ 
spice—lindera benzoin—known also as spice-wood, 
fever-wood, benjamin-bush—a member of the laurel 
family growing in the United States. To secure uni¬ 
formity of color these inferior kinds are often colored 
with Armenian bole, a kind of red clay from Armen¬ 
ia, and they are also often mixed in ground allspice, 
in addition to the stalks of the pimento. A kind of 
red pimento from Salonica is also used as an adul¬ 
terant. During the civil war, when pimento was 
high in price, a substitute was made up of clove- 
stems, wasted rye, a little cayenne pepper, and some 
cassia; this was very acceptable, altho there was not 
an ounce of pimento in it. 




Page Six. 



SPICES 


CAPSICUM 


Cayenne Pepper Is Made from This Branch of the 
Nightshade Family—Descriptions of the Va¬ 
rious Varieties of Capsicum—Tabasco 
Pepper Sauce 


The capsicum is a genus of plants of the night¬ 
shade family (Salanacea) that grows luxuriently in 
all tropical countries and many species of which are 
cultivated in the temperate zone. Capsicum or Red 
Pepper is of American origin for these reasons: 
Fruits so conspicuous, so easily grown in gardens 
and so agreeable to the palates of the inhabitants or 
hot countries would have very quickly diffused thru- 
out the old world, if they had existed in the South 
of India, as it has sometimes been supposed. They 
would have had names in several ancient languages, 
yet neither the Romans, Greeks nor the Hebrews were 
acquainted with them. They are not mentioned in 
ancient clinic books. The islands of. the Pacific did 
not cultivate them at the time of Cook’s voyage in 
spite of the proximity of the Sunda Isle where Rum- 
phines mentions their very general use. The Ara¬ 
bian physician, Ebn Baithar, who collected in the 
13th century all that eastern nations knew about 
medicinal plants, says nothing about them.. Prob¬ 
ably the first known history of cayefine pepper in 
Europe is’that given by Martyr, who writes of Col¬ 
umbus bringing it home in 1493 and speaks of it be¬ 
ing more pungent than that from Caucasus, probably 
referring to the Oriental black pepper. About a 


Page Seven. 




SPICES 


» 


century later, Gerarde writes of its being brot 
into Europe from Africa and Southern Asia and be¬ 
ing grown in European gardens. Probably the first 
record of its use is that by Dr. Chanca, who was phy¬ 



sician with Columbus’ fleet in 1494, and who alludes 
to it as a condiment used in dressing meats, dying 
and other purposes, as well as a medicine. From 
the ground dried seeds and pericarp of certain va- 


Page Eight. 












SPICES 


rieties of capsicum we get cayenne pepper, so-called 
from Cayenne, in French Guiana, S. A., whence it 
was imported by the French. Cayenne pepper is al¬ 
so called Calicut and Napaul, the names of places of 
export, and it was known as Guiana pepper over 300 
years ago. The derivation of the word “Capsicum” 
is uncertain; it may be from Kapto, hot, on account 
of its pungent taste, or from capsa, a box, or chest, 
referring to the form of its fruit. The plant grows 
from 1 ft. to 6 ft. high and is fairly well branched; 
the flowers are white or greenish-white; the fruits 
of the several species are of various forms, round, 
oblong, cordate or horned, and contain a number of 
flattish seeds. The seeds after the removal of the 
pericarp, and then thoroly washed and dried, are 
entirely devoid of acidity and pungency. The hotter 
and drier the soil, the more acrid and pungent the 
the fruit. 

Used in moderate quantities, capsicum or cayenne 
pepper, promotes digestion and so prevents flatu¬ 
lence. The natives of Brazil boil the capsicums and 
dip their manioc bread in it, making a kind of fiery 
soup. They are extensively used in India in com¬ 
pounding curries and chutneys. In Bengal the na¬ 
tives make an extract from the small capsicum chilies 
of about the- consistency of molasses. The bell pep¬ 
pers are plbasant stuffed with meats, fish, other 
vegetables, etc. The sweet and mild kinds fed to 
birds are said to improve their plumage. 

C. Annum is the most common species and con¬ 
tains a great many varieties, among them the Pim- 
iento (not Pimento or allspice) commonly known 
as Spanish red peppers or morrons, also Paprika, 


Page Nine. 


SPICES 


or Hungarian sweet pepper. This species is never 
found growing wild. 

C. frutesens is sometimes called goat pepper and 
is generally described as the true cayenne. Its 
leaves are from 3 in. to 6 in. long by 2 in. to 3y 2 in. 
wide, the fruit is red, obtuse or oblong accumminate, 
% to l^in. long and % to % in. in diameter. It is 
very acrid and pungent. It is only cultivated in the 
tropical regions, as the seasons in the temperate 
climate are not long enuf to mature the fruit. 

C. baccatum is ovate of sub-round and about *4 In. 
in diameter. C. baccatum have been known in the 
English gardens since 1731. 

C. facticulatum, also known as Mexican chilies, is 
a shrubby plant of Sierra Leone, and grows in Zan¬ 
zibar; also known as small chilies, or red cluster 
peppers. The fruit, which grows erect, is oblong 
linear, not quite an inch in length and of a deep red 
orange color. Another variety, which are mostly 
consumed locally, have larger red and yellow fruit. 
Zanzibar capsicums or chilies, are dirty looking, of 
a brownish-red color and very hot. A variety from 
Japan are bright red, not so pungent as the other 
growths, but of finer aroma. 

C. ceresiforme, the fruit is spherical, sub-cordate, 
oblate or occasionally pointed. The flesh is firm, 
from 1-12 to y 2 in. thick, and very pungent; from 
the shape of its fruit it is called the cherry capsicum, 
or pepper. 

C. grossum, originally from India, grows 2 ft. hign, 
with a few branches and large leaves 3 to 5 in. long, 
the fruit is large, oblong or ovate, and is known as 
bell pepper; it is mostly used for stuffing and pick- 


Page Ten. 


SPICES 


ling; the skin being thick, soft and tender and of a 
mild flavor. 

C. abberciatum, with ovate fruit about 2 in. long. 
While this variety is used to some extent for pickling, 
it Is cultivated more as an ornamental plant. 

C. longum grows to about 3 ft. high with compar¬ 
atively few branches, the fruit is often a foot long 
and 2 in. in diameter. The flesh is thick and flavor 
mild. 

C. Acumination is about 2 y 2 ft. high. The fruit, 
which is small, grows both erect and pendent. 

C. Conordes, with oblong linear fruit, which grows 
erect, is very acrid and pungent. It is known as ta¬ 
basco capsicum or pepper. Bird pepper, bird’s-eye 
chilies, red-bird pepper, etc., are commercial names 
given to the mild, sweet varieties of capsicum 
on account of their being fed to birds.* Ne- 
paul pepper, commercial name for capsicum im¬ 
ported from that place in India. Nepaul pepper has 
an odor and flavor resembling orris root and a pod 
the color of amber when dried. It is most esteemed 
as a condiment, being aromatic and appetizing, and 
not so acrid or biting as is most cayenne. Paprika, 
commercial name for the mildy sweet varieties of 
capsicum, chiefly grown in Hungary, Spain, Portugal, 
Jamaica, Japan and Zanzibar. 

Japanese pepper is the fruit of Xanthoxylum, an 
entirely different genus of plants to the capsicum 
family. The fruit capsules when bruised are agree¬ 
ably pungent and aromatic. It is much esteemed as 
a condiment in China and Japan. 

Tabasco pepper sauce originated with Mr. E. Mc- 
Illhenny, of New Iberia, La., in 1868, from a variety 
of capsicum in which the fruit grows erect, and was 


Page Eleven. 


SPICES 


brot by a soldier friend of Mr. Mclllhenny from Ta¬ 
basco in Mexico after the close of the Mexican war. 

Tabasco catsup originated with Mr. George Bayle 
of St. Louis, Mo. The base of it is said to be equal 
proportions of powdered capsicum and essence of to¬ 
matoes. 

Ground cayenne pepper soon loses its bright color 
when kept too long or exposed to the light, and be¬ 
comes dingy in appearance, so it is not always wise 
to judge by looks alone, as red ocher, turmeric, mus¬ 
tard, rice, sawdust, salt, brick dust, etc., have been 
found in cayenne pepper. 

The large fruits or pods are commercially known 
as capsicums, and the smaller ones as chilies. The 
term pepper is a misnomer as applied to this spice. 


Page Twelve. 


SPICES 


CINNAMON AND CASSIA. 


The Sweet Wood of Ceylon and the Aromatic Bark 
of the Present Day Often Confused With Cassia 
—Valuable Trade History. 


Cinnamon 

As in the case of sago and tapioca, a good deal of 
misconception prevails in regard to cinnamon and 
cassia, and as with sago and tapioca, one is often 
sold for the other by the uninformed. The word 
“cassia,” botanically speaking, has nothing what¬ 
ever to do with the aromatic bark which we call 
by that name, but refers to a genus of plants of the 
bean family, from which are derived the dried senna 
leaves, an infusion of which our mothers induced us 
to take by the bribe of a piece of candy, altho we 
had “tummy ache” for a brief space afterwards. The 
word “cinnamon” is derived from two Malayan words 
“cassia” from the Greek word “kasian,” which occurs 
in Psalms XLV-8, and elsewhere in the Bible, where 
it is supposed to refer to the aromatic bark of the 
present day, was afterwards tacked on. That cassia 
(the bark) was known in biblical times is well au¬ 
thenticated. It is mentioned in a Chinese herbal 
published in 1700 B. C. under the name kwei. 

The earliest mention of cinnamon is in a list of 
offerings by Seleneneus Callinieus, king of Syria, and 
his brother, Antiochus Hierax, to the temple of Apol¬ 
lo at Miletus, 243 B. C. Among the gifts mentioned 
are: “2 lbs. of cassia and a like quantity of cinna¬ 
mon.” From this it appears there was then a recog- 


Page Thirteen. 




SPICES 


nized distinction between the two barks. We do 
know that the cassia was obtained from China, but 
the source of the cinnamon is unknown, unless it 
was obtained thru the Chinese from Ceylon, the in¬ 
habitants of those countries being in frequent inter¬ 



course in ancient times, for the earliest mention we 
have of cinnamon as a production of Ceylon is by 
Kazwini, an Arab writer of about 1275 A. D. 

IThat cinnamon and cassia were extremely anal- 


Page Fourteen. 














SPICES 


cgus is proved by the remark of the Greek physician 
Galen (130-200 A. D.): ‘'The finest cassia differs 
so little from the lowest quality of cinnamon, that 
the first may be substituted for the second, pro¬ 
vided a double quantity of it were used.” With this 
brief historical sketch we will now endeavor to 
point out the differences between the two barks. 

In the first place the word “cinnamon” refers sole¬ 
ly to the cinnamon zeylanicium plant of Ceylon, 
where it is found growing wild, and was first brot 
under cultivation by De Koke in 1770. Here again, 
as with cloves, mace, etc., the Dutch tried to mon¬ 
opolize the trade. The giving away of a plant was 
punishable by flogging and the destruction of a plant 
involved the penalty of death. The tree grows to 
the height of 20 or 30 ft., having a trunk 12 to 18 
inches in diameter; the leaves are of a thick leath¬ 
ery texture, 4 to 6 inches long, very smooth and 
shining on the upper surface, glaucous with promi¬ 
nent netted veins on the under side, and are tra¬ 
versed by 3 or 5 ribs. The flowers are greenish- 
white and appear in clusters of threes. The fruit 
is an oval berry, not unlike an acorn in shape and 
color. The tree flowers in January and the fruit 
ripens in August. When the branches are peeled 
the finest sticks are said to be derived from the liber 
of the middle-sized branches, an inferior sort from 
the younger shoots, and that which is procured from 
the thickest branches is considered of little worth. 
The peeling commences in May and lasts until Nov¬ 
ember. The shoots or branches, usually about V 2 - 
inch to %-inch in diameter and from 3 to 5 ft. long, 
are cut off with a curved pruning knife, tied up in 
bundles and carried to the peeling sheds. The bark 


Page Fifteen. 


SPICES 


is removed with a small, round-pointed knife, with a 
small projecting rib or cutter placed at right angles 
to the edge of the knife. With this knife the bark 
is split lengthwise of the stock. It is then carefully 
loosened from the wood for a short distance on 
either side of the slit. A similar incision is made on 
the opposite side and the bark is finally removed. 
The bark is then put in piles, covered with scrap¬ 
ings and matting and left for about two days, dur¬ 
ing which time a sort of fermentation takes place, 
which greatly facilitates the separation of the outer 
part of the bark from the cuticle and epidermis, 
which is carefully done by scraping with a small, 
curved knife, having a slightly serrated edge. This 
process is called piping. The piper sorts the bark 
as he scrapes it. He selects a slip suitable for the 
outer layer, about 3 ft. long, and packs within it 6 
or 8 other pieces, all about the thickness of vellum 
paper—a mark which always distinguishes Ceylon 
cinnamon from cassia. They are then rolled up to¬ 
gether and exposed to the sun to dry. It now re¬ 
sembles a tight roll of paper, the best quality being 
firm and compact, of a golden yellow color, smooth 
on both outer and inner surfaces. The cheaper 
grades are not so carefully made, having many short 
pieces in the pipes or quills and not so much atten¬ 
tion is paid to obtain uniform size and color. At 
Colombo it is sorted into three kinds by government 
inspectors. The two finest kinds are exported, the 
third with the broken pieces being reserved for ob¬ 
taining oil of cinnamon. It is formed in bales about 
90 lbs. each and wrapped in double cloths made of 
hemp, and not, as stated by some, of the cocoa tree. 

Guava bark, soaked in the water left after the dis- 


Page Sixteen. 


SPICES 


tillation of cinnamon oil and rubbed over with cin¬ 
namon oil, is sometimes placed inside good cinna¬ 
mon quills and then it takes a man of Solomon’s wis¬ 
dom to detect the fraud. 

Cassia 

Cassia, under the name of Kwei, is mentioned in 
the earliest Chinese herbal—that of the Emperor 
Shena-ming, who reigned about 2700 B. C.; in the 
ancient Chinese classics, and in Rh-ya an herbal 
dating from 1200 B. C. In the Hai-yao-pen-ts’ao, 
written in the eighth century, mention is made of 
Tien-chu Kwei. Tien-chu is the ancient name for 
India, perhaps the allusion may be to the cassia bark 
of Malabar. In connection with these extremely 
early references to the spice, it may be stated that 
a bark supposed to be cassia is mentioned as im¬ 
ported into Egypt together with gold, ivory, frankin¬ 
cense, precious woods and apes, in the 17th century 
B. C. The accounts given by Dioscondes, Ptolemy 
and the author of the Periphes of the Erythrean 
Sea, that cinnamon and cassia were obtained from 
Arabia and eastern Africa; and we further know 
that the importers were Phoenicians who traded by 
Egypt and the Red Sea with Arabia, and it was im¬ 
ported hither from southern China. 

Cassia, according to Marshall and others, is the 
bark of the old branches and trunks of the cinnamon 
zeylanicium, while others assert that it is the bark 
of an entirely different species, namely, cinnamon 
cassia, a native of China, but also grown in Java. 
This view is the more probable, as no cassia is ex¬ 
ported from Ceylon, it almost all coming from Can¬ 
ton. Regents have also very different effects on the 
infusion and oil of these two barks, which conclu- 


Page Seventeen. 


SPICES 


sively shows that they are obtained from different 
species. Cassia comes in bales, 2 to 4 lbs., bound by 
strips from the bark of some other tree. The pipes 
or quills are thicker and rolled once or twice, and 
never contain thinner pieces within; the diameter 
of the bark is much thicker, harder, and not as care¬ 
fully scraped. The color is a deeper browinsh-fawn 
color. The taste is more acridly aromatic, pungent 
sweet, at the same time more powerfully astringent 
yet muclignious. Cassia is often substituted for 
cinnamon. It is adulterated with cassia lignea, the 
bark of a degenerate variety of cinnamon zeylani- 
cium growing in Malabar, Penang and Silhet. 

Other varieties of cassia are: Saigon cassia, the 
bark of an unknown species which appeared in com¬ 
merce about 1875. The outer bark is not removed, 
has a gray or grayish-brown color, is covered ex¬ 
ternally with whitish blotches, warts or wrinkles. 

C. Aromaticum is believed to be the cinnamon of 
China and Cochin China, growing in the provinces 
of Kwantung and Kwangsi. The leaves are very 
much larger than the Ceylon tree, hang down from 
the stalks and have never more than three ribs. 
This is the species that yields the cassia buds. 

C. Tamala is a native of India, wild in Derwanee 
and Gongachora. It is cultivated in the gardens of 
Rungpoor. The dried leaves have an aromatic taste. 

C. Loureirii grows in the lofty mountains of Coch¬ 
in China, to the west towards Laos, Japan. The 
flowers of cassia are produced by this species. The 
old and young branches are worthless, but the mid¬ 
dle-sized shoots produce a bark that is superior to 
that of Ceylon. None of it is exported. 

C. Culilawan is a native of Amboyna. The bark 


Page Eighteen. 


SPICES 


when dry is aromatic like cloves, but less pungent 
and sweeter. It is used by the natives of Amboyna 
as an internal medicine and as a stimulating lina- 
ment. 

C. Rubrium grows in Cochin China, and contains 
an essential oil, smelling of cloves, but not so agree 
able. 

C. Sintoc is a tree about 80 ft, high, growing in 
the Neilgherry mountains, India, and the higher 
mountains of Java. The bark is of the same quality 
as the Amboyna cassia, but not so agreeable. It is 
more bitter and powdery when chewed. 

C. Xanthaneuron is a native of the Papuan islands 
and the Moluccas. The bark when fresh is very frag¬ 
rant, but it soon loses its quality. 

C. Nitidum is a native of India. It is a shrub or 
small tree. 

C. Javanicum grows in Java and Borneo. It is a 
tree of about 20 to 30 ft. high. The dried bark is 
of a deep cinnamon brown color; more bitter than 
the Ceylon cinnamon, and the leaves when rubbed 
have a sharp aromatic odor. 

Cinnamon of the Ceylon type is cultivated in Guy¬ 
ana, the Isle of St. Vincent, Cape de Verde, Brazil, 
the Isle of France, Pondicheny, Guadaloupe and else¬ 
where. There is, however, no probability that the 
tree will succeed as an article of commerce that has 
not the hot, damp insular climate and bright light 
of 'Ceylon. 

The barks of all these different species, including 
that of Ceylon, are classed as “cinnamon” in the 
pharmacopias of Austria, Germany, Hungary, Russia, 
the United States, France, Spain, Denmark and 
Switzerland, while in the United Kingdom cinnamon 


Page Nineteen. 


SPICES 


must be the bark of the Ceylon plant C. zeylanicium; 
the others being classed as cassia. 

Oil of Cinnamon 

Oil of cinnamon is made from the pieces and chips 
of the bark, it is of a red-yellowish color. Eighty 
pounds of bark yields about 8 ozs. of oil. It is very 
stimulating. It is often adulterated with oil of cas¬ 
sia, oil of casia buds, oil of cherry laurel, and oil of 
bitter almonds—the latter is a very dangerous mix¬ 
ture. 

Cinnamon leaves yield an oil resembling oil of 
cloves, with which it is often mixed. 

The ripe berries of the cinnamon tree yield a 
volatile oil, similar to oil of juniper, and from the 
root is obtained camphor. 

Cassia oil is obtained from the leaves, buds, or 
bark. It is of a golden-yellow color, but turns brown 
with age. It is considered good for influenza. 

Cassia buds resemble nails with heads of different 
size and shape, according to the period of growth 
when collected. 

There is also a kind of wild cinnamon, or cassia, 
which grows in Cuba, but its taste resembles more 
that of cloves than of cinnamon. 


Page Twenty. 


SPICES 


CLOVES 


Interesting History With Illustration Showing Flower, 
Bud and Fruit—Where Grown and Com¬ 
mercial Uses 


Cloves are dried, unopened calyces or flower buds 
of the clove tree, Caryophyllus aromaticus, a kind of 
myrtle, a native of the Molucca islands. In commerce 
they are chiefly distinguished by their place of growth 
and rank in the following order: Penang, Bencoolen, 
Amboyna, and Zanzibar. In addition to these there 
enter into commerce as secondary products, clove 
stalks and mother cloves, or the dried ripened fruit. 
The bulk of these secondary products are shipped 
from Zanzibar. 

The clove tree is an evergreen, 15 to 30 ft. high. 
It has a thin smooth bark and adheres closely to the 
wood, which is a gray color and of little use. The 
leaves are 3 to 5 in. long. The upper side and foot¬ 
stalk is red, shading to a dark color, while the under 
surface is green. The flowers grow in small bunches 
at the extremeties of the boughs, very like the flower- 
buds of the lilac tree, and all are of a delicate purp¬ 
lish color. The calyx is long and forms the seed 
sack. As the blossoms fade the calyx changes color 
from yellow to red. If allowed to remain on the tree 
after this the calyx swells like that of the rose. In 
this state it loses its pungent properties and is called 
mother clove, and is practically of no value as a 
choice spice. The cultivated trees are kept pruned 
to about 8 or 10 ft. in height. 


Page Twenty-one. 




SPICES 


The harvesting of the flower-buds commences im¬ 
mediately after they assume a bright red color. Such 
blossoms as can be reached are plucked by hand, 
while those that grow on the upper branches are 
beaten down with bamboo poles and caught in 
clothes spread beneath the trees. They are then 
dried in the shade or by hanging on hurdles over 



slow wood fires—they lose about half their weight 
in the drying process. They are usually finished off 
in the sun, which gives them a darker color. The 
quicker they are dried the less the loss of aroma. 
Good cloves have a strong aromatic smell, a hot, 
spicy taste and a light brown or tan color. The sea- 


Page Twenty-two. 









SPICES 


son for harvesting is from September to March. A 
10-year-old tree yields about 20 lbs. of cloves a year, 
the yield increasing up to 100 lbs. for a 20-year old 
tree. 

Penang cloves are from the Straits Settlements. 
They are large, plump and of a bright color. Am- 
boyna cloves are not so large as the Penang and are 
of a dark brown color. Zanzibar cloves are smaller 
than the Amboyna, a bright reddish color and gen¬ 
erally very dry. Pemba cloves are small and dark 
in color and mostly arrive in a damp condition, and 
therefore lose weight if kept long. 

Cloves have sometimes a portion of their oil ex¬ 
tracted, which gives them a pale, thin, shriveled ap¬ 
pearance, altho they may be freshened up by rubbing 
with a little oil or passed off by mixing with good 
cloves. Cloves that have been tampered with have 
a good proportion of their heads or knobs off; altho 
another cause for headless cloves is that they may 
have been gathered when too ripe. 

Pure oil of cloves is almost colorless, with a faint 
yellow tinge and the strong smell and burning taste 
of cloves. When old it turns to a reddish brown 
color. It has a greater specific gravity than water, 
in which it will sink. 

Clove stalks and mother cloves are used in the 
manufacture of ground cloves and mixed spices. In 
Brazil the flower-buds of the tree whose bark fur¬ 
nishes cloves cassia are often used as substitutes for 
true cloves. The clove tree attracts so much mois¬ 
ture that herbage will not grow beneath its branches 
and the clove of commerce has such an affinity to 
water that if placed near a vessel of water they will 
absorb enuf of the moisture in a few hours to ap- 


Page Twenty-three. 


SPICES 


preciably increase their weight. It is said that deal¬ 
ers often take advantage of this to increase the 
weight of their goods and thus enhance their profits. 

A Little Clove History —This spice was well known 
to the ancients and is mentioned by several Chinese 
authors as in use under the Han dynasty, B. C. 266 to 
220, during which period it was customary for the 
officers of the court to hold the spice in their mouth 
before addressing the sovereign, in order that their 
breath might have an agreeable odor. At this period 
the clove was called fowl’s tongue spice. In 1265 A. 
D. the price was 12s per lb. In 1609 a ship of the 
East India Co., called the Consent, brot 112,000 lbs. 
to England which was sold at 5s 6d per lb. As was 
the case with nutmegs, the Dutch attempted to con¬ 
trol the business in cloves. With this object in view, 
they caused all the clove trees to be destroyed ex¬ 
cept those of the island of Amboyna. The natives of 
the island were compelled to rear a certain number 
of plants each year and also to protect the bearing 
trees. The French, however, found a number of clove 
trees growing wild in the smaller island, and Poivre, 
French governor of Mlauritius, who obtained the plant 
from the island of Guebi, introduced the clove 
tree into that colony in 1770. About 1800 an Arab 
named Harameli-ben-Selah took some seeds ana 
plants from Boubon to Zanzibar and commenced the 
cultivation of cloves in that country. The word clove 
is derived from the Latin clavus nail, Spanish clavo 
and French clou, owing 4s nail-like appearance. 


Page Twenty-four. 


SPICES 


GINGER 


Used as a Spice by the Early Greeks and Romans— 
Plant a Native of Asia and Grew Wild in 
Mexico and Africa 

As a spice, ginger was used among the early Greeks 
and Romans, who appear to have received it by way 
of the Red sea, inasmuch as they considered it to be 
a production of southern Arabia. In the list of im¬ 
ports from the Red sea into Alexandra which, in the 
2nd century of our era, were then liable to the Roman 
fiscal duty, ginger occurs among other Indian spices. 
It appears in the tariff of duties levied at Acre in 
Palestine, about 1173, in that of Barcelona in 1221, 
Marseilles in 1228 and Paris 1296. It was known in 
England before the Norman conquest, being fequent- 
ly named in the Anglo-Saxon leech-books of the 11th 
century as well as in the Welsh “Physicians of Myd- 
dvai.” During the 13th and 14th centuries, it was, 
next to pepper, the commonest of spices, costing on 
an average Is 7d per lb., or about the price of a sheep. 
Three kinds of ginger were known to Italian mer¬ 
chants about the 14th century: (1) Belledi of Ba- 
ladi, an Arabic name which applied to ginger would 
signify country, wild, and denotes common ginger; 
(2) Columbonio, which refers to Columbuno, Kolam 
or Quilon, a port in Travanore, frequently referred 
to in the middle ages; (3) Micchino, which denotes 
brot from or by way of Mecca. Marco Polo saw it in 
India and China, 1230-1239. John of Mbntecorvino, a 
missionary friar, who visited India in 1290, gives a 


Page Twenty-five. 




SPICES 


description of the plant and refers to the root being 
dug up and transplanted. Nicolo de Conti, a Vene¬ 
tian merchant, early in the 15th century describes 
the plant and a collection of roots he saw in India. 
The Venetians received it by way of Egypt, and 
superior kinds from India overland by the Black 
sea. Ginger was introduced into America by Fran¬ 



cisco de Mondoca, w T ho took it from the East Indies 
to New Spain. It was shipped for commercial pur¬ 
poses from the islands of St. Domingo in 1585, and 
from Barbadoes in 1654. 

Ginger is the dried, knotty fibrous rhizomes or 
tubers—“races” or “hands” as they are called from 


Page Twenty-six. 









SPICES 


their irregular, palmate form—of the ginger plant 
(zinziber officinale) the real roots being the thin 
fibers that branch off from the rhizomes. 

The plant is a native of Asia, but also found grow¬ 
ing wild in Mexico and East Africa. It is a reed-like 
biennial plant, not unlike the iris or flag in appear¬ 
ance. The leaves are long, similar to those of maize, 
growing alternate on a stem 3 to 4 ft. high. The 
flowers are borne on a separate stem, 6 to 12 in. high; 
they are yellow or blue, according to the quality of 
the soil in which they have been grown. The plant 
which produces the yellow flower and best ginger is 
grown on rich, deep, virgin soil; the other comes 
from poorer ground. Ginger is propagated by pieces 
of the rhizome being planted in March. The flowers 
appear about September, after they have withered 
and seeded. The roots are dug up about January. 
When left too long in the ground, the rhizomes be¬ 
come very fibrous, if taken up too soon they are 
tender and succulent, so much so that they cannot be 
made sufficiently dry to render them fit for export 
in the usual commercial form. They are therefore 
preserved in sugar. The rhizomes, besides being 
classed as “yellow” or “blue,” are also divided into 
“plant,” (being the rhizomes from plants of the same 
season’s growth), and “ratoon” which are rhizomes 
left in the ground from the previous harvest. 

Ginger is known in commerce in two distinct forms, 
termed respectively as coated or uncoated ginger,— 
as having or wanting the epidermis. For the coated 
ginger, the races of hands, after being dug up, are 
thoroly washed to free them from all the adhering 
earth. They are then laid on a canvas or cement 
floor, outdoors, to dry by the heat of the sun. At 


Page Twenty-seven. 


SPICES 


night they are taken indoors. It takes from 6 to 8 
days to thoroly dry them. They are then ready for 
shipment. In damp weather they are artificially 
dried by an evaporator. In this form ginger presents 
a brown, more or less wrinkled or straited, surface, 
and when broken up shows a dark brownish fracture, 
hard, and sometimes horney and resinous. For the 
uncoated ginger the fresh-dug rhizomes, after being 
washed, are soaked in water for some time and then 
peeled or scraped—a most delicate operation re¬ 
quiring the hand of an expert. Owing to the peculiar 
formation of the races, no machine has yet been in¬ 
vented that will do the work satisfactorily. The 
outer rind or skin is deftly taken off by means of a 
common knife, so as not to injure the inner root, as 
a loss of the pungent volatile oil, to which ginger 
owes its value, would follow and thus impair its com¬ 
mercial worth. After being peeled the races are 
soaked in water over night. In the morning they are 
again washed, cleaned and weighed, and then dried 
in the same manner as coated ginger. 

It requires 3 lbs. of green root to make 1 lb. of dry 
root. The purer the water the whiter the ginger. 
Sometimes lime juice is added to the wash water, 
which gives a whiter root, but as lime juice contains 
sugar, it prevents thoro drying and mildew follows. 
Ginger is often subjected to a system of bleaching, 
or by immersion for a short time in a solution of 
chlorinated lime. The white-washed appearance 
which much of the ginger has is due to the fact of 
its being washed in whiting and water or even coated 
with sulphate of lime. Uncoated ginger varies from 
single joints an inch or less to flattish, irregularly 
branched pieces of several joints, the races of hands, 


Page Twenty-eight. 


SPICES 


and from 3 to 4 in. long. Each race has a depression 
on the summit showing the former attachment of a 
leafy stem. The color, when not white-washed, is a 
pale buff. It is somewhat rough, breaking with a, 
short, mealy fracture, and presenting on the surface 
of the broken parts numerous short or bristly fibers. 

The best ginger grown comes from Jamaica. It is 
of a superior strength, fine flavor and a light, hand¬ 
some color. A peculiar trade custom prevails in 
Jamaica with regard to ginger, which is not sold by 
weight or measure but by the “heap,” and the size of 
the heap governs the price and is an indication, to 
a certain extent, of the quality and quantity of the 
crop. If the heap is small, the price is high; if the 
heap is large, then the price is lower. If the races 
or hands, are finely shaped and large, there are fewer 
in the heap; if small, dark and mealy, the heap is 
made larger. 

The next best quality is Borneo or Cochin ginger, 
which closely resembles in appearance the Jamaica. 
It is not, however, so carefully prepared. 

African ginger, also termed Bombay or Calcutta, 
from the ports of shipment, is darker in color, has a 
coarser appearance, a harsher flavor and inferior 
aroma to either of the above, but contains a greater 
amount of oleoresin than they do and is very pungent. 
It is largely used for making ginger beer, essences, 
extracts, etc. 

Leaf ginger is ginger that has been sliced into thin 
flakes. 

Green ginger root, is that which has not undergone 
any process of cleaning beyond freeing it from the 
earth adhering. Imported in casks and used by wine 
makers, preservers, etc. 


Page Twenty-nine. 


SPICES 


Spent-ginger is whole ginger that has once been 
used, then fixed up to resemble good ginger and sold 
whole or ground. It does not possess a single one of 
the valuable properties of genuine ginger. 

China ginger is not imported in a dried state, the 
rhizomes being too tender and succulent to thoroly 
dry for export. It is preserved or candied. For pre¬ 
serving, the rhizomes are first scalded, then washed 
in cold water and peeled, then boiled in pans for 2 or 
3 hours; then transferred to copper pans and boiled 
for 2 hours in a mixture of sugar and water—just 
sufficient water to cover the roots, 5 lbs. of sugar to 
10 lbs. of ginger, the roots having been pierced with 
a sharp instrument to enable the sugar to soak Into 
them. After boiling the ginger is put into large 
jars and stands for several days, when it is again 
boiled in sugar and water in the same quantities. 
After it has become cold it is packed in jars or tins 
for export. To crystallize, the same process is gone 
thru, only in the final boiling it is boiled until the 
sugar become dry. 

The Chinese season for preserving ginger is from 
July to October. It is nearly all prepared in Canton 
and Hongkong. A kind known as Ng Mai Keunig is 
preserved in Swaton, from Alpina galanga, but it is 
not like the Canton or Hlankou ginger and is only 
made for native consumption, to be used medicinally 
or for cooking. Some of it goes to the Straits Settle¬ 
ment, but none to Hongkong. Jamaica preserved gin¬ 
ger is mostly put up in glass bottles. The uses of 
ginger are too well known to need repeating. 


Page Thirty. 


SPICES 


MUSTARD 


Well Known to the Ancients, but More in a Medicinal 
Way—How Cultivated and Prepared for 
Commercial Uses 


Mustard was well known to the ancients, but more 
in a medicinal way than dietetic. From an edict of 
Diocletian, 30 A. D., in which it is mentioned along 
with alimentary substances, we must suppose it was 
then regarded as a condiment, at least in the eastern 
parts of the Roman empire. In Europe, during the mid¬ 
dle ages, mustard was a valued accompaniment to 
food, especially with the salted meats which consti¬ 
tuted a large portion of the diet of our ancestors dur¬ 
ing the winter. In the Welsh “Meddygon Myddrai” of 
the 13th century, a paragraph is devoted to the “Vir¬ 
tues of Mustard.” In household accounts of the 13th 
and 14th centuries, mustard is of constant occurrence; 
it was then cultivated in England, but not extensively. 
The price of the seed between 1285 and 1340 varied 
from Is 3d to 6s 8d per quarter (21 lbs.), but between 
1347 and 1376 it was as high as 15s and 16s. In the 
accounts of the Abbey of St. Germain des Pres in 
Paris, 800 A. D., mustard is specially mentioned as a 
regular part of the revenue of the convent lands. 

The essential oil of mustard was first noticed in 
1660 by Nicolas le Febre and more distinctly in 1732 
by Boerharroe. 

The word mustard comes from the Italian, mur- 
tard, which is derived from the Latin must-um, un¬ 
fermented grape juice, with which the Italians for- 


Page Thirty-one. 




SPICES 


merly mixed ground mustard. The Athenians called 
it napy; while the Hellenistic name was sinapi, or 
sinapy, whence the Latin sinapi, or sinapis, from 
which is derived the German word senf. Hippocrates 
used mustard in medicine under the name of Vanuit. 
The dark seed, which comes from Trieste, Austria, is 
called Trieste mustard. Spoken of by Theophnastus, 
Galin and others. What is called French mustard, Ger¬ 
man mustard, etc., is made of the dressings mixed 
with vinegar, garlic and other spices and flavoring 
musterial. The form in which table mustard is now 
sold dates from 1720, about which time Mrs. Clements, 
of Durham, Eng., hit on the idea of grinding the seed 
in a mill and sifting the flour from the husk. This 
bright yellow farina rapidly attained wide popularity. 
The fame of “Durham Mustard” was spread for and 
wide, Mrs. Clements traveling to London and princi¬ 
pal cities twice a year taking orders. 

There are two species of mustard plants from 
which ground mustard is made. The sinapes alba, 
white or yellow mustard, and sinapes nigra, brown 
or black mustard, is the mustard plant spoken of in 
Luke XIII, 19. They are annual herbs, three to 6 ft. 
high, with lyrate leaves, yellow flowers, and slender 
pods, from one to four inches long, containing a sin¬ 
gle row of roundish seeds. 

One of the peculiarities incident to the cultivation 
of mustard is the fact that two crops of mustard can¬ 
not be raised on the same ground in succession. An¬ 
other variety is sinapes arvenus, or wild / mustard, 
called charlock and used for adulterating; the Sar- 
epta, the black seed of the sinapes juncea, from the 
East Indies, is used for the same purpose. Sarepta 


Page Thirty-two. 


SPICES 


is called from a city of that name in Russia, in the 
government of Saratov. 

The brown or black variety is sown in January and 
the yellow or white in March, the seed being sown 
broadcast and harvested in August. A reaper is used, 
cutting the stalks and throwing them in bunches, 
where they are left to cure until October. They are 
now thoroly dry and are taken to a convenient place, 
spread out upon sheets of canvas and rolled with a 
heavy roller. The stalks and empty pods are then 
raked off, and the chaff and seeds remaining are run 
thru a fanning machine, after which process they are 
ready to sack and market. 

There are two processes in use in making ground 
mustard. In the first, the seeds, white or black, or 
mixed, are ground to powder and then put thru an 
elaborate course of siftings. The product left after 
the first sifting is called “dressings” and that which 
passes thru is pure mustard flour. This mustard flour 
is again run thru a finer sieve, and so on until the 
required fineness is obtained. From the dressings 
leit after the different sievings, the essential oil of 
mustard is expressed. 

In the other method, the oil is first extracted from 
the seeds by hydraulic pressure, which leaves a sort 
of cake. This cake is then broken up and pounded in 
a mortar. It is then sifted, that going thru the sieve 
being a kind of bolted mustard flour. The remaining 
bran is then mixed with an equal quantity of wheat 
flour, one per cent of cayenne and sufficient turmeric 
to give the proper color. This is pounded and treated 
as before, the process being continued until there is 
no bran left. Then all the different siftings are mixed 
together, giving a mixture of about equal proportions 


Page Thirty-three. 


SPICES 


of mustard and wheat flour, with the cayenne and 
turmeric added in proper quantities. 

The peculiar pungency and odor, to which mustard 
owes much of its value, are due to an essential oil 
developed by the action of water on two chemical 
substances contained in black mustard seed; one 
called sinigrin and the other myrosin. The latter 
substance in the presence of water acts as a sort of 
ferment on the sinigrin, and it is worthy of remark 
that this reaction does not take place in the presence 
of boiling water and, therefore, it is not proper to 
use very hot water in the preparation of mustard, cold 
water only should be used. White mustard seed con¬ 
tains in the place of sinigrin a peculiar acrid sub¬ 
stance called sinalbin and also a trace of myrosin, 
therefore, it possesses very little pungency and it 
produces a larger percentage of flour than the black. 
The proper blending of these two seeds is necessary 
to the production of the best mustard, as the white 
has the peculiar ferment within it which develops 
to the highest degree the flavor of the black. 

The reason for mixing wheat flour, rice flour or 
other farina with pure mustard flour is, that owing 
to the large amount of oil contained in the latter it 
will not keep long, but turns rancid, ferments and 
cakes; the added farinas by absorbing a portion of 
the oil retards fermentation, decomposition and ran¬ 
cidity. They should not be looked upon as adulter¬ 
ants, unless added in too great quantities, and the 
price of the mustard should be in proportion to the 
added absorbents. 

A mean form of adulteration is to mix gypsum and 
chrome yellow with the ground mustard seed. 

If upon the addition of a small quantity of iodine 


Page Thirty-four. 


SPICES 


to ground mustard it turns blue, it shows that starch 
is present. The ammonia test will show the presence 
of turmeric. Every manufacturer has his own par¬ 
ticular formula, and consequently there are many 
different qualities, both in the pure mustard and the 
compounds. One is composed of 37 per cent brown 
and 50 per cent white mustard flour, 10 per cent of 
rice flour, 3 per cent of black pepper, a little Chili 
pepper and ginger. 

Pure mustard oil, as pressed from the seed, is not 
pungent and will not blister unless mixed with water. 

The English mustard seed is the best in the world. 
Of this class 4,995,800 lbs. of seed and 1,307,202 lbs. 
of flour were imported during the year 1908. Mustard 
seed and flour from Italy is known as Trieste. In the 
Lompoe valley, California, some 2,500 acres are under 
mustard cultivation, and a small quantity is also 
grown in Kentucky. 

The uses of mustard are too well known to need 
recapitulation. D. S. F. means double superfine. 


Page Thirty-five. 


SPICES 


NUTMEG AND MACE 


Where the Nutmeg Tree Grows—Yield of Nuts and 
Mace and How Prepared for the Market— 

Uses in Commerce 


The nutmeg tree, known to botanists as Myristica 
frangrans (sweet smelling) is a native of the Malay 
archipelago. The tree, which in the Banda isles 
grows to the height of 50 to 60 ft., and in the Straits 
to 30 to 40 ft., resembles the pear tree in the shape 
of its leaves and fruit. Its flowers are like those of 
the lily of the valley in form and size, but are pale 
yellow and exceedingly fragrant. There are male and 
female flowers, the nutmegs being obtained from the 
latter. It is only when the tree is about 6 or 8 years 
old that the female tree can be distinguished from 
the male, and of the latter only a few are allowed 
to remain for fertilizing purposes, the rest being cut 
down. The nutmeg tree continues to yield from 70 
to 80 years after reaching maturity (8 years). 
Each tree on an average will produce 10 lbs. of nut¬ 
megs and l x /z lbs. of mace annually. The fruit is 
yellowish, edible drupe, about the size of a peach; 
it splits into halves when at maturity—about 9 
months from the time of blossoming—exposing a 
single seed with a thin, hard shell, surrounded by a 
fibrous substance of a crimson color, which, when 
dried and shelled becomes the nutmeg. The young 
drupes, when young and tender, are often preserved 
like jam and are considered the most aromatic and 
delicious of conserves. Altho the nutmeg tree has 


Page Thirty-six. 




SPICES 


ripe fruit upon it at all seasons, there are three 
principal periods of harvesting, viz: July, when the 
fruit is most abundant, though it yields thin mace; 
November, when the mace is thicker, though the nut¬ 
megs are smaller, and Mlarch, when both mace and 
nutmegs reach their greatest perfection—but as this 
season is dry the production is not great. 

The usual method of gathering in the Straits is to 
collect the ripe nuts that have fallen on the ground. 
In the Banda islands, the fruits are gathered in 
small, neatly-made, oval bamboo baskets—holding 
about 3 fruit—at the end of a long bamboo stick, 
which prevents bruising, the baskets be¬ 
ing opened for about half their length on 
one side, and furnished with two small 
prongs projecting from the top, by which 
the fruit stalk is broken, the fruit falling 
into the basket. After the pulp—which 
is about V 2 -in. thick, whitish in color, and 
tough like candied peel—has been re¬ 
moved the mace is stripped off by hand. 
The shell of the fruit is very hard and 
cannot be broken without injury to the 
kernel. To overcome this they are put 
into receptacles with fine mesh bottoms, 
and dried over a slow fire—being turned 
from time to time—until the kernel 
rattles freely in the shell, a process 
which takes about 6 or 8 weeks. This 
also kills any weevil which may be at 
work in them. They are then carefully 
cracked by placing them on a sort of 
drumhead made of raw-hide and striking 
them with a board or mallet, when the 
shells fly off into pieces. Great caution is needed in 



Page Thirty-seven. 








SPICES 


shelling, for if too hard a blow be struck it makes a 
black spot on the nutmeg, which affects its 
value considerably. After being steeped in salt 
water several times and again dried they are sorted 
according to size and soundness—130 to 140 to the 
pound are the lowest priced, 75 to 80 the highest, 
and larger nuts are sold at special prices. The 
sorting is done by hand, and nothing but sound, per¬ 
fect nuts are supposed to be shipped. The broken 
and wormy ones are used in manufacturing “nut¬ 
meg butter,” or, as it is commonly but erroneously 
called, “mace oil.” They are now limed. There are 
two methods of liming in vogue—the dry and the 
wet. In the dry process, the nuts have dry lime 
powder rubbed over them, either by hand or shak¬ 
ing in barrels. In the wet process, the nuts are 
put into newly-slacked lime and then spread out to 
dry, or they are dipped into a kind of lime-pickle, 
thick as syrup, made of calcined-shells and salt 
water. After being covered with this mixture they 
are dried. The process of liming originated with the 
Dutch, with a view to preventing the germinating 
of the seeds, for which purpose they were formerly 
immersed for three months in milk of lime. Again 
it is claimed that liming preserves the nuts against 
the attacks of maggots and a particular kind or 
beetle by stopping up their breathing and chewing 
apparatus. A preference is still manifested for limed 
nutmegs. 

As nutmegs are now seldom shipped by sailing 
vessels, but by steamers, thus saving the long-time 
voyage, there is no reason why they should not come 
unlimed, and then the differences in their nat¬ 
ural complexions and range of variations would 


Page Thirty-eight. 


SPICES 


become familiar and easily recognized. The 
liming process hides many imperfect or corky nuts; 
nuts which have been riddled with worm holes are 
“stopped” with a paste made of flour, oil and nut¬ 
meg powder and then mixed with the sound ones. 
Occasionally this paste is moulded into false nut¬ 
megs. Besides this, nutmegs are frequently robbed 
of part of their essential oil by distillation in alco¬ 
hol—a process called “sweating”—and yet sold as 
entire nuts. A small quantity of boracic acid will 
accomplish the same purpose as lime, and Paris 
white and barytes will serve to mask the identity 
as well as the defects. A good nutmeg should have 
no worm-holes, be full of oil and cut firm like a piece 
of wood, and if a pin is thrust into one the oil 
should ooze out on its being withdrawn. 

The Penang nutmegs, which are generally not 
limed, are considered the best, altho some prefer the 
Banda or Batavia, and after these the Singapore. 
There is also a demand for an elliptical-shaped nut¬ 
meg of rank flavor, first called long nutmegs, but 
now known as Macassars. Another kind of nutmeg 
from New Guinea, and known in Germany as “horse 
nutmeg,” is from the species Myristica Argentea. 
It is of a long and narrow shape. In these the arel- 
lus or mace furrows are less marked and their odor 
is not so delicate as that of the true nutmeg. 

There are many kinds of wild or inferior nutmegs, 
such as: American Jamaica, or calabash nutmeg 
(M. monodora), of the custard-apple family, bearing 
a large pulpy fruit containing aromatic seeds. 
Brazilian nutmeg (cryptocarya moschata) a tree of 
the laurel family, producing nutmegs of an inferior 
quality. The nut is longer than the true species and 


Page Thirty-nine. 


SPICES 


is sold under the name of long nutmeg. California 
nutmeg, a tree of the pine family, called also stink¬ 
ing nutmeg or stinking yew, from the disagreeable 
odor of the leaves and wood when bruised and burn¬ 
ed, and yielding a fruit resembling true nutmegs. 
Clove nutmeg, a Madagascar tree of the laurel fam¬ 
ily, the fruit a pungent kernel resembling the true 
nutmeg and used as a spice. Peruvian nutmeg, a 
large tree of the monimiad family, yielding an aro¬ 
matic fruit. From Borneo a wild, soapy nutmeg and 
mace (M. fatua) are often palmed off as the true 
kinds. There is also the Sante Fe nutmeg (Motoba) 
from Columbia, S. A., and Ackaway nutmeg, a spice 
grown in Guiana, the fruit of Acrodiclidum camard. 
Another species, the M. sebefira, is a common tree 
in the forests of Guiana, north Brazil, and up into 
Panama. It is utilized principally for the oil ex¬ 
tracted from the nuts, obtained by macerating them 
in water, the oil rising to the surface, and as it 
cools skimmed off. Ackawi nutmegs, used mainly as 
a cure for diarrahoea and colic. All these, while re¬ 
sembling somewhat the true nutmegs and sometimes 
foisted on dealers, are of very little real value. 

Mace 

When the mace, a bright-red membraneous sub¬ 
stance, is removed from the nut it is pressed flat be¬ 
tween blocks of wood and left to dry until it has 
acquired the right color. The preparation of mace 
for the market requires experience rather than tech¬ 
nical knowledge. If packed too green it is liable to 
mold, and is subject to attacks from insects, which 
render it valueless in commerce. On the other hand, 
if it becomes too dry it loses its vitality and also 
crumbles into powder when packed. Packers fre- 


Page Forty. 


SPICES 


quently sprinkle the mace with salt water, which 
makes it more pliable and at the same time pre¬ 
vents attacks from insects. 

We may here state that nutmegs are divided into 
two varieties: The green, which are long and in 



which the mace only partially covers the nut; is 
darker in color and inferior in flavor and aroma; 
and the Royal, which furnishes the finest and best 
mace, firm, thick, flexible and oily, and entirely en¬ 
velopes the nut. 


Page Forty-one. 











SPICES 


As with the nutmeg, mace is sometimes deprived 
of its essential oil, and mixed with wild mace or 
other flavorless matter. Myristica Malabarica, 
known under the name of Bombay mace, used to 
adulterate the true powdered mace, is much larger 
and more cylindrical than the arillus of the true 
nutmeg and has several flaps united at the apex, 
forming a conical structure. 

Products—Candied nutmeg and mace, nutmeg 
fruits in vinegar or salt, preserved nutmeg fruits, 
and nutmeg or mace essence made from the essen¬ 
tial oil of nutmegs (not mace) and rectified spirits. 
An essence of mace is also made from 6 oz. mace 
and 2 pints cologne spirit, macerated for a couple of 
weeks, expressed and filtered thru paper. “Nutmeg 
butter, “butter of nutmeg,” or mace, “concrete oil of 
nutmeg,” or “expressed oil of mace,” as it is variously 
called, is obtained by subjecting the nutmeg or mace 
to a great heat and then squeezing or pressing it in 
heavy presses. This substance is of a green color of 
the consistency of tallow and of a pleasant smell. A 
pound of nutmegs will make 3 ozs. of this oil, but a 
transparent volatile oil is obtained by distillation. It 
evaporates rapidly on exposure to air. When cold it 
becomes somewhat spongy and has a marbled or mot¬ 
tled appearance. It becomes hard with age and is ex¬ 
ported in small bricks, 10 in. by 2 y 2 in., wrapped in 
palm leaves. It is known under several names, as 
nutmeg butter, balsam of nutmeg, concrete oil or the 
mace oil of commerce, and as Banda soap, sometimes 
made from the distilled nutmeg leaves, counterfeited 
by using a foreign fatty substance as palm oil, nut, 
wax and animal fat, boiled with powdered nutmeg 
and flavored with sassafras, which gives it the right 
color and flavor. 


Page Forty-two. 


SPICES 


Uses —Nutmegs, besides their use as a spice or 
condiment, are used to relieve sleeplessness when 
opium fails and chloral is not advisable. For diarr¬ 
hoea, half a drachm in milk is an effective cure. 
Butter of mace is used as a liniment and embroca¬ 
tion for rheumatism and is also a favorite medicine 
for low stages of fever with Hindoo doctors. 

For ground nutmeg, all the faulty, broken, moldy, 
worm-eaten and wild nutmegs are often used. 

A little of the history of mace and nutmegs: It 
has generally been believed that neither the nutmeg 
or mace were known to the ancients. Nutmegs and 
mace were imported from India at an early date by 
the Arabians, and thus passed into western countries. 
Masudi, who appears to have visited England in 916- 
920 A .D., pointed out that the nutmeg, like cloves, 
arcca nut and sandalwood, was a product of the 
eastern isles of the Indian archipelago. The Arabian 
geographer, Edrisi, who wrote in the middle of the 
12th century, mentions both nutmeg and mace as 
articles of import into Aden. They are also among 
the articles on which duty was levied at Acre in 
1180. About a century later another Arabian author, 
Kozwim, expressly named the Moluccas as the na¬ 
tive country of the spices under notice. One of the 
earliest references to them in Europe occurs in a 
poem about 1195, by Petrus D’Ebulo, describing the 
entry into Rome of the Emperor Henry VI, previous 
to his coronation in 1191. By the end of the 12th 
century both nutmeg and mace were found in north¬ 
ern Europe, even in Denmark, as may be inferred 
from the allusions to them in the writings ofHarpe- 
string. In England, mace, though well known, was 
a very costly article, its value between 1284 and 


Page Forty-three. 


SPICES 


1377 being about 4s 7d per lb., while the average 
price of a sheep during the same period was about 
Is 5d, and of a cow 9s 5d. It was also dear in France, 
for in the will of Jeanne d’Evreux, queen of France, 
in 1372, 6 ozs. of mace were appraised at the rate 
of 8s 3d per lb. In the middle of the 18th century, 
the Dutch, with the object of monopolizing the trade 
in nutmegs, destroyed all the trees in all the Moluc¬ 
cas islands, excepting Banda. Nature did not, how- 

a 

ever, sympathize with such meanness. The nutmeg 
pigeon, found in all the Indian islands, did for the 
world what the Dutch had determined should not 
be done—carried the nuts, which are their food, in¬ 
to all the surrounding countries, and trees grew 
again and the world had the benefit. In order to 
keep up the price, the surplus stock was burned up 
each year by certain unscrupulous men, as is pro¬ 
posed to do at the present day with the surplus 
stock of Brazilian coffee. In 1760, they burned at 
Amsterdam three such immense piles of nutmegs 
and cloves that one writer says: “Each of which 
was as big as a church.” 

This account of nutmeg would not be complete 
without “Connecticut Nutmegs.” Some 90 years 
ago Frederick Accum startled England with his book 
“Adulteration of Food and Culinary Poison,” and a 
sort of pure food hysteria passed thru the country 
similar to that caused by the boric acid investiga¬ 
tion here. But he was eclipsed by a person who 
declared that the makers of wooden shoe-pegs in 
Connecticut were making oats and nutmegs from 
the discarded wood of sawmills. He asserted they 
were not only made, but used as food thruout the 
country. Thus was Connecticut christened the Nut¬ 
meg State, a name which it has retained even unto 
this day. 


Page Forty-four. 


SPICES 


PEPPER 


White and Black Varieties and Why—How the Plant 
Is Cultivated and Where—History the Grocer 
Should Know to Judge Qualities 


Pepper is a commodity to be found in every groc¬ 
ery store, but how many grocers know that the pep¬ 
per plant—Piper nigrum—which produces the white 
and black pepper of commerce, is a climbing vine¬ 
like shrub, found growing wild in the forests of Tra- 
vanscore and Malabar coast of India? It is exten¬ 
sively cultivated in southwest India,, whence it has 
been introduced into Java, Borneo, the Malay pen¬ 
insula, Siam, the Philippines and the West Indies. 

Pepper in the time of Alexander the Great was 
considered an extremely choice article and, like gold 
and precious stones, was for many generations found 
only on royal tables. During the Middle Ages, it was 
used as money in payment of tolls, etc., hence the 
custom of “pepper corn” rentals, i. e., a nominal ren¬ 
tal or perpetual lease; and its high price is said to 
have been one of the causes which led the Portu¬ 
guese to seek a sea passage to India. 

The pepper plant grows naturally to 20 ft. in 
height, but is cultivated on trellises or poles, about 
10 or 12 ft. high and is porpagated by cuttings or 
suckers. It has a soft stem, the leaves are 4 to 6 in. 
long, tough, glossy, broadly ovate, with 5 to 7 nerves, 
and grow opposite and alternate to a pendulous spike 
5 to 8 in. long, having 20 to 50 white flowers that 
ripen into a one-seeded fruit with a fleshy exterior. 


Page Forty-five. 




SPICES 


This fleshy berry, covering a soft stone, is about the 
size of a pea and is at first green, but in ripening 
turns red, which gradually darkens to a deep choco¬ 
late shade. The vine begins to bear when 3 or 4 
years old and continues bearing for the next 10 or 15 
years. It is in perfection at its eighth year. 



There are two crops a year—July and December— 
which yield 5 to 6 lbs. of dried pepper each for a 
single vine. When the berries are ripe the stalk is 
pinched off by hand and placed in an oblong cane 
basket, slung horizontally behind the plucker by a 


Page Forty-six. 





SPICES 


rope around his waist. The rounded ends of the 
basket extend a little on either side, so that the 
basket can be easily filled by either hand of the 
workman. The berries are rubbed off the spikes by 
hand and placed on mats or on the bare ground, to 
dry in the sun, when the weather is fair. In damp 
or cloudy weather they are placed in shallow, open 
baskets before a gentle fire. If the berries are left 
too long on the vines they lose part of their aromat¬ 
ic, pungent hot taste, and if gathered too soon they 
become broken and dusty in drying. After drying, 
when they become black and shriveled up, they are 
cleaned and winnowed. Good black peper is firm 
and not too deeply wrinkled, does not easily crumble 
or break in the hand, it is also heavy and readily 
sinks in water. The inner seed should be hard, 
round and smooth and of a grayish-brown color. The 
outside pericarp should be brownish-black. A yel¬ 
low tinge betrays over-ripeness and consequent loss 
of strength. A reprehensible practice among some 
dealers to hide defective peppers is to artificially 
blacken them and polish with oil. The usual meth¬ 
od of judging quality is by weight, the grades tech¬ 
nically being known as heavy, or shot, half-heavy 
and light peppers or corns. A one-litre measure may 
be filled with the pepper and the contents weighed, 
or 100 corns of average size counted and their weight 
ascertained. The variations of pepers of different 
qualities, according to their habitat, are given in the 


following table: 

Weight 

Variety— per litre 

Singapore .476 grams 

Tellicherry .548 


Page Forty-seven. 




SPICES 


Lampong 
Mangalore 
Malabar . 
Acheen . 


511 grams 


574 “ 

570 “ 

407 “ 


It is evident that the moisture present in the corns 
plays an important part in the determination of the 
weight, and it will be necessary to bring the peppers 
up to the stated water content by either drying 
them or placing them in a moist atmosphere, or first 
weigh them dry and weigh again. A slight variation, 
however, from the figures given, is unavoidable. 

Singapore Pepper—The principal part of this im¬ 
port is the product of Sumatra, Borneo and Siam, 
collected at Singapore. A considerable quantity, 
however, is the products of the Straits Settlements 
themselves. It is of large size and of a fairly uniform 
quality, but as pepper powder it is not much esteem¬ 
ed, owing to the manner of drying, giving it a smoky 
flavor that buyers can distinguish Singapore pepper 
from peppers grown elsewhere. 

Tellicherry and Alleppey are much alike in appear¬ 
ance, both being light brown in color. They too, like 
the Malabar peppers, are sun-dried. Mangalore (In¬ 
dia) pepper is heavy, large, of a deep black color, 
very clean, and of uniform size. When powdered it 
is of a greenish-black appearance. 

The pepper shipped from Penang is called Irang 
pepper and is grown in Sumatra. From the east end 
of the same island comes the Lampong pepper, but 
this lacks uniformity, and is light in color. It is 
also sun-dried. Long pepper is the fruit spike of 
Chivaci Roxburgh, a native of Malabar and Chavica 
officinarum, a native of the India archipelago; they 
are both climbing plants. The first pods, or catkins, 


Page Forty-eight. 






SPICES 


about 1 y 2 in. long, grow nearly straight, and opposite 
the leaves. They are gathered before they are ripe 
and dried in the sun, when they become brown or 
dark green in color and rough to the touch. They 
lack the pugency qf the black variety. The long pep¬ 
per plant dies at the end of 3 years, and after the 
fruit is collected the vine dies down to the ground. 
The fruit grows so close together on the spike that 
when ripe they become one solid mass. There is 
also a variety of long pepper called elephant pepper. 
Long peppers are mostly used for pickles. A med¬ 
ium, called Pippua moola, is made from the roots 
and stems; it is very stimulating. 

Cubeb peppers are the berries of the vine Cubeu 
officinalis, a product of Java, Borneo and Sumatra, 
but mostly imported by way of Batavia and Canton. 
They are of a gray color, about the size of black 
pepper, somewhat longer, more wrinkled and with a 
short slender stalk. They have a hot, camphor taste. 
Another kind is distinguished by a mace-like odor 
and taste. Cubebs are now mostly used as a medi¬ 
cine. 

Ashantee or West African pepper is the dried berry 
of a pepper plant which grows in tropical Africa. It 
is smoother and smaller than the black pepper and 
resembles the Cubeb very closely. In taste it re¬ 
sembles the ordinary black pepper. At one time its 
importation was forbidden by the king of Portugal, 
as it threatened to interfere with the commerce of 
India. 

Betel pepper is the berry of Chavica betel, a spe- 
ies of climbing vine largely cultivated in the East 
Indies, Ceylon, Burma, Siam, etc. It furnishes the 
leaves which are used along with arecanut and other 


Page Forty-nine. 


SPICES 


ingredients to compose the favorite stimulant chew¬ 
ing mixture of the people of India. 

White pepper is from the same plant as black 
pepper, with the difference, that to make white pep¬ 
per the pepper corns are not picked until fully ripe; 
they are then soaked in water for 7 or 8 days, or 
heaped up so that the pulp ferments, then they are 
rubbed by hand, or on a coarse cloth, if the quantity 
be small, or trampled under foot if the quantity be 
large; this operation deprives them of the pulpy 
skin or husk, and the greenish-white seeds which re¬ 
main are the white pepers of commerce; then they 
are re-dried, either in the sun or by artificial heat. 
White pepper is bleached whiter by a chemical pro¬ 
cess. If the berries be left on the vines until over¬ 
ripe they lose their pulpy husk by natural decay and 
thus become actually white pepper, altho in reality 
they are the kernels of black pepper. 

Singapore white are berries cultivated in the 
neighboring islands and the husks are removed at 
Singapore by hand and friction before the berries 
are fully dried. Penang white is really grown at 
Sumatra, but imported into Penang in a dried state. 
There the berries are soaked in lime and water for 
several weeks, until the pulp is soft, when it is rub¬ 
bed off by hand and washing; the berries are then 
re-dried. 

Siam white are berries prepared in the same man¬ 
ner as Singapore white, from berries grown in Siam. 

The dried black peppers, as imported, are also de¬ 
corticated or deprived of their husks by machinery, 
the result being white pepper, which is sometimes 
bleached. 

The active properties of pepper are an acrid resin, 

Page Fifty. 


SPICES 


a volatile oil, and a crystallizable, colorless sub¬ 
stance called pipertine, or peperic. Why white pep¬ 
per should be preferred before the black is one of 
the anomalies of the trade. White pepper has really 
only about a quarter the strength of black pepper, 
and is the least economical to use for these reasons: 
(1) Because of being allowed to ripen it loses much 
of its pungency. (2) Because it is deprived of the 
outer skin or husk, which contains much of the con¬ 
stituents which go to make good pepper. (3) Be¬ 
cause it contains scarcely a trace of piperin, one of 
the most active principles of pepper. Pepper rapid¬ 
ly deteriorates under atmospheric influences, and 
large stocks should not be carried unless provisions 
are made for storing it in air-tight receptacles, for, 
unless this precaution is taken, the goods in a few 
months will have lost their pungency, which is an 
essential characteristic of good pepper. 

Pepper is a stimulant, and used in moderate quan¬ 
tities is an aid to digestion. In India an infusion of 
it is used to create an appetite and as a cure for gout 
and palsy. It is also used in cases of cholera-mor¬ 
bus. A liniment is made from the berries for rheu¬ 
matism, and the root is employed as a tonic stimu¬ 
lant and cordial. 


Page Fifty-one. 


SPICES 


a 


CUMIN, OR CUMMIN SEED 


Also Caraway, Coriander, Cardimons, Poppy, Aniseed, 
Saffron and Turmeric Described. 


Cumin, or Cummin Seed 

The aromatic fruit or seed of a plant of the genus 
Umbellefera. It is referred to in Scripture (Matt. 
xxxiii:23). As salt was a symbol of friendship, 
“shearers of salt and cummin” meant intimate 
friends. The seeds are linear and flat on 
one side and convex or striated on the other. 
Their odor and properties resemble the caraway, or 
anise seeds, and they are often called bastard anise. 
They are used in Germany in bread, in Holland they 
are frequently put into cheese. Norwegian anchovies 
in kegs are frequently flavored with them, and they 
are also used in making curry powder, as a carmina¬ 
tive flavoring, and in veterinary medicines, etc. 

Caraway Seed 

The caraway plant has a branching stem 2 or 3 ft. 
high, with finely divided leaves and dense umbels 
of white or pinkish white flowers. The leaves are 
frequently used to flavor soup and the roots, which 
taper like a parsnip, and when young are boiled and 
eaten as a vegetable. The seeds are oblong, pointed at 
both ends, thickest in the middle, striated on the 
surface and of a crescent shape, they have an aro¬ 
matic smell and warm, pungent taste. From the 
seeds is obtained a volatile oil called oil of caraway, 
of a pale yellow color which turns dark with age; 


Page Fifty-two. 




SPICES 


it is frequently adulterated with oil of cumin. After 
the oil has been extracted the seeds are called 
“drawn caraways,” and by way of deception are often 
mixed with good caraway seeds. They can be told 
by their shrunken, dark appearance. The color of the 
English caraway seeds is a deep brown, those of 
Germany and Holland are larger and of a light blue- 
brown color, while those from Russia, Poland and 
Bohemia are small, of a blackish brown color, and 
mixed with a good deal of dirt. There is a variety 
of a light brown color, about twice the size of the 
English caraways, imported from Mogador. 

Caraway seeds and oil are used medicinally, as a 
flavoring by bakers and confectioners, in compound¬ 
ing various liquors, particularly that known as Kum- 
mel, and in making Scotch cavie, or caraway, com¬ 
fits; for this purpose the seeds are coated with sugar 
and colored red, pink, blue, yellow, etc. 

Coriander. 

The word “coriander” is derived from the Greek 
word Koriannon, a bed-bug, referring to the dis¬ 
agreeable smell of the whole plant when fresh, but 
the ripe and perfectly dried fruit has an agreeable 
smell and a sweetish, aromatic taste. Its an annual 
or bi-annual plant, of the genus Umbelliferce, native 
of South Europe, with a branching stem 1 or 2 ft. 
high. The lower leaves bipennate, the upper ones 
being more compounded and divided into very nar¬ 
row divisions. The fruit is globose, containing round 
slightly ribbed or ridged seeds, about as large as 
black pepper, very light, of a yellowish brown or 
straw color externally; inside the husk of each seed 
are two closely fitting hemispherical mericarps. 

The seeds are used in medicine as a carminative. 


Page Fifty-three. 


SPICES 


r 


They cover the taste of senna leaves better than 
any other substance; are occasionally mixed with 
curry powder; in domestic economy they are used 
by confectioners and bakers as flavorings, being 
often mixed with bread in the north of Europe. A 
cordial is made from them, and they are used for 
flavoring spirituous liquors, particularly gin. 

Cardamons. 

Cardamons consist of the seeds of two species of 
plants, the Elettaria of Malabar and the Amomon of 
China, Guinea and other parts of the East Indies. As 
the seeds of the two species differ in some respects 
we will describe the Ellettaria kind. The plant, which 
grows 5 to 10 ft. high, has a reed-like habit and bear 
long, loose racemes of flowers, succeeded by trian¬ 
gular capsules, of a dirty white color, containing a 
number of dark brown, angular seeds about the size 
of mustard seeds. The capsules or fruits, which 
vary from y 2 in. to 2 in. in length, are collected from 
wild plants and also from plantations, the latter be¬ 
ing generally laid out in partially cleared forests 
in which the wild plants are known to occur. When 
about 3 years old the plants begin to bear. The 
capsules do not all ripen at the same time, and the 
harvest lasts for nearly two months. The capsules 
are gathered before they are ripe and then cured in 
the sun, after which the stalks and remains of flow¬ 
ers are carefully removed by means of scissors. 
They are then graded into “shorts,” “short-longs,” 
and “long-longs,” according to their length; some¬ 
times they are mixed and classed as lesser or greater 
cardamons. Cardamon seeds are exported in the 
capsules in order to prevent adulteration. The 
seeds have a very delicate aroma and are slightly 


Page Fifty-four. 


SPICES 


pungent. They were well known to the ancients, 
and are used at present in medicine, particularly in 
veterinary practice, also in flavoring culinary sauces, 
soups, curries, cordials, pastry, and for imparting a 
factitious strength to vinegar, beer, wines and 
spirits, especially gin; their use creates a thirst. 
The seeds depend for their quality on a pungent es¬ 
sential oil, of which they contain about 3 per cent, 
called oil of cardamons; they also contain about 10 
per cent of a fixed oil. The seeds of the “Amomum” 
species of cardamons are bright black in color out¬ 
side, white inside and small and angular in shape; 
they are slightly aromatic, very hot and pungent. 

Cardamons are known as grains of Paradise,, 
Melegueta pepper, Guinea grains and Guinea pepper. 

Poppy Seeds 

Poppy seeds are not unlike fine gunpowder in gen¬ 
eral appearance, being very small, dark blue—near¬ 
ly black in color; they are obtained from the same 
plant that yields opium (Papavar somnniferium, or 
white poppy.) The seeds are not narcotic, and have 
a sweet taste, are oleaginous and nutritious. They 
are largely used in some parts of Europe in pastry, 
confectionery and as a substitute for almonds. Under 
the name of “Maw seeds,” they are sold as food for 
birds during moulting season. Poppy seed oil is 
sometimes used as an adulterant in olive oil; it is 
also used as an illuminant and for painting. 

Fennel 

Fennel is a tall, stout, aromatic herb of the pars¬ 
ley family, with finely dissected leaves, which are 
boiled and served with salmon, mackerel, etc., as a 
seasoning; the flowers are yellow. A species—F. 

Page Fifty-five. 


t ■* 



SPICES 


dulce—is cultivated in Italy as celery is with us; 
and its blanched stems are said to be more tenaei 
and delicate than celery, with a slight flavor of 
fennel. The seeds of another species—F. panmor- 
ium—grown in Bengal, have a warmish, very sweet 
taste and aromatic smell, and are used in making 
betel, in curries, and also used as a carminative. 
Fennel seeds resemble aniseeds in appearance and 
taste, and are often sold for such; they are a little 
longer and of a light brown color. The Indian seeds 
are the largest, the Italian and Japanese the smallest. 
They are used in confectionery, cookery and are 
sometimes chewed by the people of France and Ger¬ 
many. Fennel water is made from the oil obtained 
from the seeds. 

And he who battled and subdued 

A wreath of fennel wore.—Longfellow. 

Aniseed 

Aniseed is an annual plant of the order of Um- 
belliferae of the parsley family, a native of Egypt, 
but also extensively cultivated in Russia, Germany, 
Malta and Spain. Aniseed is very similar in appear¬ 
ance to the poisonous hemlock seed, for which it has 
sometimes been mistaken. The seed, which is a lit¬ 
tle larger than a pin’s head, is of a greyish-green 
color. They have an aromatic smell, and warm, 
sweetish taste, and are used in condiments, in cook¬ 
ery and in the preparation of liquors, also in medi¬ 
cine as a stimulative stomachic to relieve flatulence, 
etc., particularly in infants. The properties of ani¬ 
seed are due to a nearly colorless or sometimes blue 
volatile oil. Aniseed oil with water and sugar is 
much used in Italy as a .cooling drink. The leaves of 


Page Fifty-six. 


SPICES 


the plant are sometimes used as a seasoning and for 
garnishing. 

Star aniseed, or China aniseed, is the fruit of a 
small evergreen tree of the order Magnoliacae, some¬ 
what resembling a laurel. It receives its name from 
the star-like form of the fruit or capsule, which con¬ 
sists of a number (6 to 12) of hard, woody, one-sided 
follicies or carpels ending in a point, each containing 
a single brown, shiny seed. Star aniseed is held in 
high esteem by the Japanese and is planted near their 
temples, the seeds being burned as incense in the 
temples and over the graves of relatives. The whole 
plant is carminative, and is used by the Chinese as 
a stomachic and as a spice in their cookery. The 
qualities of the seed and oil closely resemble those 
of the common aniseed and the oil is exported to 
Europe for the same purpose—flavoring liquors. 

Saffron 

Consists of the dried stigmas of the autumn or fall 
crocus plant (crocus sativus), which should not be 
confounded with the spring crocus (crocus vernus), 
to which it is nearly allied. The crocus derives its 
name from Crogeus—which is from the Greek word 
Krokus, yellow—the modern Korghy in Cilicune, 
where it was grown in ancient times. The word 
“crocodile” is derived from the Greek words Krokos, 
yellow, and deilos, fearful, on the ancient supposition 
the animal avoided the place where saffron grows 
and only sheds real tears when in the vicinity of 
a crocus field, hence Fuller says: “The crocodile 
tears are never true, save he is forced where saffron 
groweth.” The phrase, “crocodile tears,” arose from 
the idea that the crocodile pretended to cry over the 
victims it had devoured. Saffron was of great im- 


Page Fifty-seven. 


SPICES 


portance ages ago. It is mentioned in the third chap¬ 
ter of Solomon’s Songs; it was in favor among the 
ancient Greeks as a dye, and with both them and the 
Romans as a perfume. The streets of Rome were 
sprinkled with saffron when Nero made his entry 
into that city. In the middle ages it was employed 
in cookery and as a drug, and it is on record that 
as late as the fifteenth century persons were burned 
alive in Muremburg for adulterating saffron. It was 
introduced to England in 1339 from Tripoli by a 
pilgrim who had a stolen bulb in the hollow of his 
staff. Its main use was to color pastry and confec¬ 
tionery, hence: “I must have saffron to color the 
warden pies” (Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale, act 4, 
scenel). The town of Saffron Waldron in Essex, 
derives its name from the fact of its being cultivated 
in that neighborhood until 1768. The cultivation of 
the crocus for saffron in England has entirely died 
out; altho the people of Cornwall at the present day 
use more saffron than all the rest of Great Britain. 
It is cultivated in China, Cashmere, Persia, Asia 
Minor, Egypt, Austria, Hungary, Russia, Italy, France, 
but the chief source of supply is Spain. 

A saffron field is not in full bearing until the end 
of the second year, at the end of the third year it is 
exhausted, and it is said that the soil is so poisoned 
that it cannot be used for any other crops for several 
years. Each acre produces from 600,000 to 700,000 
bulbs and each bulb 2 or 3 flowers. About 150,000 
flowers are required to produce 2 lbs. of fresh pistils, 
which when dried are reduced to one-fifth of that 
weight. 

The small yield, the labor required, the care in 
culture and the difficulty of preserving the product in 


Page Fifty-eight. 


SPICES 


a good state renders saffron an expensive article— 
about 80c an ounce. On the seed-bearer of the flower 
there is a thread-like hook or fork, which at its uppei 
head terminates in three thick, dark, orange-colored 
nerves or tissues; to save and collect these tissues 
the flowers are gathered in the fall, just as they are 
breaking, or a little before; they are plucked early 
in the morning, and these little masses are then 
pulled out with a considerable portion—about 1^ in. 
of thread-like stem, to which they adhere. They are 
then dried over little charcoal fires or in the sun. 
It is this dried stigma, the trifid orange-colored tops 
of the central organ of the flower, that is the saffron 
of commerce. The remainder of the flower is use¬ 
less. 

Saffron as it generaly comes to the- trade consists 
of a large number of crooked and mixed-up threads, 
of an orange-red color; it has a peculiar, sharp, rooty 
and pungent smell, and a bitter balsam-like taste; 
that of a whitish yellow or blackish color is old and 
inferior. The great solubility of saffron prevents its 
use as a dye for fabrics, its place being taken by 
aniline dyes. Its coloring power is remarkable, a 
single grain rubbed to a fine powder with a little 
sugar will impart a distinct tint of yellow to 10 gals, 
of water; soaked in spirits or warm water it will 
yield three-fourths of its weight of a deep orange 
yellow coloring matter, which is perfectly wholesome, 
and if kept tightly corked will keep for some time. 
The chief uses of saffron are for flavoring and color¬ 
ing confectionery and culinary articles; it is also 
used as a perfume and is given to birds during the 
moulting season. Spanish saffron is divided into five 
grades, according to the district in which it is culti- 


Page Fifty-nine. 


SPICES 


vated. It is generally wrapped in tinfoil and then 
in white tissue paper and packed in tin boxes or 
strong cartons. 

On account of its high price saffron is often coun¬ 
terfeited or adulterated with the petals of safflowers, 
African saffron, Meadow or wild saffron, marigold, 
arnica, etc. It is also loaded with glycerine, glucose, 
dyed vegetable filamenta, honey, sulphate of soda, 
barium sulphate, etc., and exhausted saffron is some¬ 
times re-colored with aniline dye. The stigma of 
genuine saffron immediately expands on being moist¬ 
ened with warm water, and its form is so character¬ 
istic that it cannot be mistaken for the flowerets of 
any of its adulterates. 

Cake saffron is generally made from the dried flow¬ 
ers of the safflowers—a thistle-like plant of the aster 
family—or the florets of the saffron plants made into 
a paste with gum-water; it is used for dying and mak¬ 
ing rouge. 

Turmeric 

Turmeric is an East Indian plant (curcuma longa) 
of the ginger family, with the same properties as 
ginger, only not so powerful. It is also grown in 
Zanzibar, China and the Malayan archipelago. It 
is a stemless plant with dark green leaves varying 
from 6 in. to 24 in. long and 3 in. to 6 in. wide, 
flowers of a dull yellow color and a tuberous root 
varying in thickness from that of a quill to y 2 in. 
in diameter and often a foot long, with joints or ring¬ 
like swellings at short intervals; of a yellowish to 
orange color outside and sometimes white and some¬ 
times orange color inside. They are classed as long 
or round tubes according to their shape. From the 
root is made a kind of arrowroot much relished by 


Page Sixty. 


SPICES 


the natives of India to color their faces. In medicine 
it is used as a cordial or stomachic; as an anti-scor¬ 
butic, and for stimulating the digestive organs. In a 
fresh state it is given to expel intestinal worms and 
in diarrhoea. It is used in varnishes and ointments 
and as a dye for silks and woolens, but it is now 
chiefly employed in making Indian curries or pickles, 
mustard, compounds, pudding spices, chow-chow pick¬ 
les. A kind growing in Bengal, called “Mango gin¬ 
ger,” from its resemblance to the mango, is used for 
the same purpose as ginger. 

Turmeric paper is a bibulous paper, yellow from 
saturation with the extract of turmeric, used as a test 
for alkalies, by which it is turned brown or red. Tur¬ 
meric is also made from the roots of the canna, a 
member of the same family of plants cultivated at 
Sierra Leone. 

Turmeric is adulterated with yellow ocher and car¬ 
bonate of soda. Turmeric is insoluble in cold water, 
only partly soluble in boiling water, but is quite 
soluble in alcohol, forming beautiful yellow crystals. 

Nasturtium 

The flower buds and fruits of the common garden 
nasturtium are often used as a spice after being 
ground and dried; they are also pickled like capers 
and used on fish, meats, etc. The name is derived 
from nausa, nose, and tortus, twist, from the effects 
of its pungent smell or taste. 


Page Sixty-one. 


As a study of this little book 
will show, there are as many 
grades in Spices as in any com¬ 
modity on the market. Progres¬ 
sive dealers realize that the con¬ 
sumer quickly appreciates qual¬ 
ity. We pack only selected Spices 
under our 

GOLD SHIELD GRAND 

Every can of GOLD SHIELD 
Spices represents the finest pro¬ 
duct grown, milled with greatest 
care and packed in attractive 
style. We earnestly recommend 
GOLD SHIELD Spices to deal¬ 
ers catering to high grade trade. 

Respectfully yours, 
SCHWABACHER BROS. & CO., Inc. 

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON 







OCT 31 ¥910 


LIBRARY of congress 


0 014 359 894 9 fc 

Manufacturers 


who want the co-operation 
of the best buyers and live 
retailers of the PACIFIC 
NORTHWEST to increase 
the distribution of their pro¬ 
ducts should advertise in the 

Trade Register 

Nearly eighteen years old; 
an acknowledged leader and 
only Two Dollars a year. 


The Trade Register 

88 Jackson Street, Seattle, W' 


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